Linux – How to password protect a .tgz file with tar in Unix

A similar issue is encountered at http://code.google.com/p/libarchive/issues/detail?id=3

It looks like a bug in BSD tar, which is the default tar on FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and possibly other systems.

Easiest workaround is probably to extract with GNU tar. Just run "gnutar" instead of "tar" if you're on OS X. On FreeBSD you may need to install gnutar from ports.

The problem is, the *.xml gets interpreted by the shell, not by tar. Therefore the xml files that it finds (if any) are in the directory you ran the tar command in.

You would have to use a multi-stage operation (maybe involving pipes) to select the files you want and then tar them.

The easiest way would just be to cd into the directory where the files are:

$ (cd /path/to/file && tar -cf /path/to/example.tar *.xml)

should work.

The brackets group the commands together, so when they have finished you will still be in your original directory. The && means the tar will only run if the initial cd was successful.